Review article
https://doi.org/10.59014/YWCE1606
How onefoot tinny hero jumped in modern puppetry
Igor Tretinjak
Abstract
As a form that has always been at the bottom of social and artistichierarchies and largely outside the interest of theatre scholars and historians,puppetry has, from its beginnings until quite recently, been poorly — if at all— accompanied and guided by theory. In Croatian puppetry, we can findo nlya few puppeteers who have recorded their thoughts and perspectives, and evenfewer theorists who have turned to practice in order to test and affirm theirideas. An exception to this scarcity is the brief yet highly significant puppetrywork of Luko Paljetak, whose plays The Ugly Duckling and The Steadfast TinSoldier revolutionized Croatian puppetry, reviving all the elements of stageplay. Paljetak did not stop at practice; he also articulated his puppetry vision —one that liberated the medium from the burden of convention — in theoreticalwritings, encapsulating it in the maxim: “The puppet is everything, everythingis a puppet!” This paper focuses on Paljetak’s play The Steadfast Tin Soldier,which, together with selected theoretical texts, enriched Croatian puppetrywith a contemporary expression and mode of thought.
Keywords
Luko Paljetak; puppetry; animation; puppet; contemporary cuppetry; The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Hrčak ID:
341128
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2025.
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